T
The Word
Guest
Everyone claims to have the true church but has anyone truly looked at it from the perspective of Christ who started it. This thread was to open your eyes to some things that is wrong with the churches throughout the world.
I used this tithing and offerings topic to point out something that is wrong in the churches today. Now I've been by the Mormon Tabarnacle several times and I know that building wasn't cheap to build. I was involved in construction for 25 years and the labor on that church cost a lot of people their hard earned money. There are many multi-million dollar churches in America today.
I'm living in Barcelona where it's mainly Catholic Cathedrals but I do know there are Protestant churches here too. It's a big city so it can handle a lot. What I'm getting at is that Jesus would be shaking his head right now to see how many poor people througth the years had to fork out money they really didn't have to get these churches and cathedrals built.
Can you imagine how much money it took to buy the land, build the churches and fill them with all the churchy things men like and then the cost of maintaining all this. Then of course, you have the missionaries who need support and many other workers that go about their religious activities.
Jesus operated his church on a very low budget such as nothing. Everything he needed came from the Lord. He even fed his congregations through God's donations. He taught his disciples to depend on God and not the world. They were to depend on him for food, clothes and a place to sleep. That's all God promises to us anyway. He didn't say we were going to drive Mercedes cars, live in expensive homes, go to the best universities, or build cathedrals and churches all over the world.
God commanded us to not worship any other gods before him and to not worship man-made idols. Are we obeying him by all the churches we build and forcing the poor people to divy up money to build them with? How about worshipping the money itself? This seems to be the most important issue in many churches today.
The saints of the true church of Jesus Christ took care of each other. If someone needed food, it was given to them. If someone needed clothes, they were clothed. If someone needed a bed to sleep in, they slept well. Not one nickel was spent on buying land or building churches in their time, which was during the three hundred years before the Romans killed them all off and started Christianity.
The true church of Christ was in the hearts of the saints. They didn't need buildings to worship their God because he was with them at all times. They slept wherever they could sleep and ate food off the trees and from that of the ground. They were never without food, clothes and sleep because God always provided for them. They never had to worry about a thing.
The only purpose a saint had was to preach the gospel so that's all they did when they had people to listen to them. They didn't have a one hour sermon on Sunday mornings. They probably preached for six hours on Sundays before our pastors and preachers even got out of bed. God gives a saint a very powerful desire to preach the gospel so that's all they want to do. He doesn't care where all the listeners will stay or if they follow him around the country. All they preach for is that one listener who comes to know the true God.
They might preach for a whole year to find one listener of the truth that finds faith in God. Then God will take over this listener's heart and start working on cleansing him of all sins so he can fill him with his spirit. Then this listener becomes a new saint.
This is what the true church of Jesus Christ was like in those days until the Romans turned it into a circus of religion. This is when the tithes and offerings became a very important part of church building. The spirit didn't exist in this new Roman Catholic church because all the saints were killed by this time. The Vatican was set up and the tithe and offerings were pushed on the new congregation made up of deceived followers of the dead saints. The Bible was changed drastically to keep these followers from the truth of the spirit of Christ.
Money started to roll in with these tithes and offerings and eventually they were able to use this money to go out and conquer land and wealth. This Roman church became the richest entity known to mankind and they built cathedrals everywhere and filled them with idols.
This church set the example of all other churches in the world. No matter how much the churches try not to be unGodly, they are still a far cry from being like the true church of Jesus Christ. After they were all killed and most of their writings were destroyed, we didn't have much to go by. Now you know what it was like and what it should be like today. If it wasn't for those tithes and offerings, we wouldn't have church buildings today and no one would have known the difference. The true church would still be operating and meeting in the parks, back alleys, people's homes, coffee shops, and maybe a rally out on someone's farm.
Tithes and offerings are useless in the true church of Jesus Christ. Not one penny of it can buy sainthood. Sainthood costs much more than money can ever buy.
God bless you,
Brad
I used this tithing and offerings topic to point out something that is wrong in the churches today. Now I've been by the Mormon Tabarnacle several times and I know that building wasn't cheap to build. I was involved in construction for 25 years and the labor on that church cost a lot of people their hard earned money. There are many multi-million dollar churches in America today.
I'm living in Barcelona where it's mainly Catholic Cathedrals but I do know there are Protestant churches here too. It's a big city so it can handle a lot. What I'm getting at is that Jesus would be shaking his head right now to see how many poor people througth the years had to fork out money they really didn't have to get these churches and cathedrals built.
Can you imagine how much money it took to buy the land, build the churches and fill them with all the churchy things men like and then the cost of maintaining all this. Then of course, you have the missionaries who need support and many other workers that go about their religious activities.
Jesus operated his church on a very low budget such as nothing. Everything he needed came from the Lord. He even fed his congregations through God's donations. He taught his disciples to depend on God and not the world. They were to depend on him for food, clothes and a place to sleep. That's all God promises to us anyway. He didn't say we were going to drive Mercedes cars, live in expensive homes, go to the best universities, or build cathedrals and churches all over the world.
God commanded us to not worship any other gods before him and to not worship man-made idols. Are we obeying him by all the churches we build and forcing the poor people to divy up money to build them with? How about worshipping the money itself? This seems to be the most important issue in many churches today.
The saints of the true church of Jesus Christ took care of each other. If someone needed food, it was given to them. If someone needed clothes, they were clothed. If someone needed a bed to sleep in, they slept well. Not one nickel was spent on buying land or building churches in their time, which was during the three hundred years before the Romans killed them all off and started Christianity.
The true church of Christ was in the hearts of the saints. They didn't need buildings to worship their God because he was with them at all times. They slept wherever they could sleep and ate food off the trees and from that of the ground. They were never without food, clothes and sleep because God always provided for them. They never had to worry about a thing.
The only purpose a saint had was to preach the gospel so that's all they did when they had people to listen to them. They didn't have a one hour sermon on Sunday mornings. They probably preached for six hours on Sundays before our pastors and preachers even got out of bed. God gives a saint a very powerful desire to preach the gospel so that's all they want to do. He doesn't care where all the listeners will stay or if they follow him around the country. All they preach for is that one listener who comes to know the true God.
They might preach for a whole year to find one listener of the truth that finds faith in God. Then God will take over this listener's heart and start working on cleansing him of all sins so he can fill him with his spirit. Then this listener becomes a new saint.
This is what the true church of Jesus Christ was like in those days until the Romans turned it into a circus of religion. This is when the tithes and offerings became a very important part of church building. The spirit didn't exist in this new Roman Catholic church because all the saints were killed by this time. The Vatican was set up and the tithe and offerings were pushed on the new congregation made up of deceived followers of the dead saints. The Bible was changed drastically to keep these followers from the truth of the spirit of Christ.
Money started to roll in with these tithes and offerings and eventually they were able to use this money to go out and conquer land and wealth. This Roman church became the richest entity known to mankind and they built cathedrals everywhere and filled them with idols.
This church set the example of all other churches in the world. No matter how much the churches try not to be unGodly, they are still a far cry from being like the true church of Jesus Christ. After they were all killed and most of their writings were destroyed, we didn't have much to go by. Now you know what it was like and what it should be like today. If it wasn't for those tithes and offerings, we wouldn't have church buildings today and no one would have known the difference. The true church would still be operating and meeting in the parks, back alleys, people's homes, coffee shops, and maybe a rally out on someone's farm.
Tithes and offerings are useless in the true church of Jesus Christ. Not one penny of it can buy sainthood. Sainthood costs much more than money can ever buy.
God bless you,
Brad
